Windows XP question about dual boot.?

Question

f you have a computer that came installed with windowsxp to c:\windows then (after having reg problems) have to reinstall it to c:/windows2 to get it to boot and access the files on c:/, if the second install is working fine now, is it ok to blow away the c:/windows directory to free that space? (8gig) Thanks!

Answer 1

no, you will need to find which install contains the boot.ini and then copy it to the good copy of windows and then edit it to exclude the bad copy.  Remember that if you are going exclude the bad os then you must set the default os in the boot string. You can rename the good one in order to see which is which.  I had one called gaming and another call media to isolate various processes for a better gaming experience.  You may end up needing to boot into dos and entering the ol c:/fixboot command so have a floppy boot disk present.

Answer 2

What I would do is delete windows 2 and reinstall windows original in repair mode

When windows boots from cd and loads all drivers etc it will give a choice of

1) fresh install

2) R for repair

Choose the R one and follow instructions thiis will fix the first installation

In future

to fix reg and system errors go to

C:\properties / Tools /error repair new box tick little box to fix errors  and reboot

On rebooting windows will scan disk and fix errors then restart

This method is a first option to fix windows